Stephen Fry supports campaign to save The Hobbit pub in Southampton

An online campaign to save a Southampton pub named The Hobbit from Hollywood legal action has gained the support of Stephen Fry.

Fry, who is among the cast for the big budget film adaptation of JRR Tolkien’s precursor to The Lord of the Rings from which the pub took its name, said the threat of a lawsuit from California-based movie producer Saul Zaentz Company (SZC) was ‘self-defeating bullying’.

The Hobbit: The pub’s landlady says she can not afford to challenge the legal action (Picture: PA)

Stella Roberts, 41, the landlady of The Hobbit pub, which is popular with university students for its Gandalf, Bilbo and Frodo colourful cocktails, as well as a life-size Aragorn replica rescued from a skip, said she could not afford to take on SZC, which owns the worldwide film, stage and merchandising rights to The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit.

‘The pub has been called The Hobbit for more than 20 years and it has never been a problem,’ she told the Southern Daily Echo.

‘I believe the decision to target us now was prompted by the release of the film.

‘We have been told that absolutely everything to do with the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit must go. We just haven’t got the resources to fight it.’

Ms Roberts has until the end of May to change the theme, the name and even the sign outside the pub or face legal action for copyright infringement.

An internet campaign launched to save The Hobbit pub has already acquired 15,000 ‘likes’ on Facebook and the support of Fry, who will play the Master of Lake-town in the upcoming films based on The Hobbit book, on Twitter.

A Facebook group calling for the legal action to be dropped has 15,000 fans (Picture: PA)

In a reply to @savethehobbit , he tweeted: ‘Honestly, sometimes I’m ashamed of the business I’m in. What pointless, self-defeating bullying.’

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, starring Martin Freeman and Sir Ian McKellen, is due out in December.

The second film, subtitled There and Back Again, will be released in 2013.

Edward Wildman Group solicitors, acting for SZC in the UK, said its client would not be commenting on the case.